I really don't want to be shilling for ESPN

I mean, God knows they don't need my help, but . . .

if you're scrambling for a Father's Day gift (or, in my case, a Father-in-Law's Day gift), you could do worse (much worse) than the ESPN 30 for 30 Limited Edition Collector Set from Amazon for $49.99 (it lists for $149.99).

this is an excellent series if your dad (or someone else) is even a marginal sports fan: Michael Jordan's year of minor league baseball in Birmingham (by Bull Durham director Ron Shelton), the rise and fall of SMU football (the death penalty qualifies as a fall, right?), The Legend of Jimmy the Greek, Muhammad (Ali) & Larry (Holmes) by Albert Maysles (one of the Maysles Brothers behind Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens), June 17th, 1994 (white Bronco is all you need you to know), Four Days in October (for Red Sox fans only), Fernando Nation (Steve Wynn, the guitarist, not the gambling mogul, would really enjoy that one), The Best That Never Was (on Mississippi running back Marcus Dupree) and on and on and on (all the way up to 30) for $49.99 when most individual titles run from between $12.99 and $17.99.

anyway, so there's some wholly inelegant prose, but 30 very well done, hour-long films for $49.99 is a really, really good deal.